


Listen (Carefully) to Your Flower's Whisper

by aunnoo



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, Hajime loves his plants, M/M, Magical Realism, Plants, Tooru loves Hajime, a lot of plants, magical realism counts as magic au right?, mention of bully but very little, that's basically the story
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-16
Updated: 2017-04-16
Packaged: 2018-10-19 14:13:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10641534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aunnoo/pseuds/aunnoo
Summary: Tooru knows from a young age that Iwaizumi Hajime is different.It isn't about the moving plants in Hajime's garden, the stray flowers following him instead of a stray cat, or flower petals changing colors according to his mood.Tooru knows because Hajime has given him a friend, thousands of adventures, a pocket of wins and loss, and a life of promises more than magic.





	

Tooru knows from a young age that Iwaizumi Hajime is different.

\-----

It is just another ordinary afternoon and Tooru is struggling to finish his vegetable juice, a whole glass too much considering cucumbers and carrots and spinach shouldn’t have appeared in juice because juice should be only consisted of oranges, strawberries and other sweet things. It takes great effort to not grimace as he twines and swings his legs under the table.

His mother, nodding in approval, slides him a plate of his favorite mochi and announces that there’s a new family just moved in that morning.

Tooru halts in the middle of conquering his weird liquid _brownish_ -green, eyes wide in surprise as he catches the word ‘ _family_.’ He gulps down the remaining half of his juice under his mother’s stare before moving up to drop the glass in the sink.

He’s a bit too careless and hasty and makes quite a sound as glass hits steel.

“Sorry,” Tooru says, tone too hurried to be apologetic.  

He sprints up the stairs, two steps at once and almost miss the last one, as his mother calls from downstair, saying she’s going to greet their new neighbor.

He hears the shuffling sound of his mother in the genkan as he enters his room. He climbs in his bed and moves to open his window, observing the window across his. The light in the room next door isn’t on but the daylight illuminates the half filled room, boxes piling messily besides a bed frame that isn’t there before. A single bed.

Tooru is six and would be going to elementary school in the coming summer, so he is smart enough to know that single bed confirms one thing: the neighbor has a kid.

His eyes trails to the neighbor’s front door but can only see the back of a car parking in front of the house. He sees a man, solid back, broad shoulders and dark hairs, closing the trunk before entering the car to move it.

 _Clank_.

A loud voice from the backyard (one of the spaces Tooru could spy perfectly from his room window) catches Tooru’s attention. He turns and sees a boy, a _boy_ (Tooru’s hands tightening around the window sill and his body leaning forwards,) having literally fallen into the small backyard, several clay pots broken around him.

A woman’s voice calls from the front. “Hajime, are you alright?”

The boy, _Hajime (_ Tooru tests the sounds mutely to himself and decides he likes it, _)_ stands up quickly, dusts the dirt from his tank top and blatantly ignores the cut on his knees. “I am okay, mom. Just need to gets _Ajis_ to the back.”

“Don’t take too long. We still need to unpack before dinner.”

“Okay,” Hajime calls back, crouches down and palms the dirt and flowers among the broken clay pieces. He stands, looking around before moving to the empty planting bed facing Tooru’s window.

The boy doesn’t even use a trowel to dig. He simply puts the flower down, pats the dirt then pets the flower (like one does a dog) and repeats the action, till all five bundles of purple-blue are settled in the same bed.

“There,” the boy says proudly at his work, still in a crouch position. “How do you like it? It’s our new home.”

The flowers is silent (of course) but perfectly fresh and vibrant under the afternoon sun after a day of a supposedly long moving journey, every petal stretching outwards like they want to get closer to the boy.

The boy smiles after a beat, like the flowers have actually given a satisfying answer. “Yeah, I hope so. It’d be nice to have a friend.”

At that, Tooru’s eyes light up.

\-----

It only takes three days for Tooru to learn the boy was indeed talking to the flowers.

It isn’t hard to figure. The boy isn’t subtle.

Every morning, instead of hearing his mother calling him for breakfast, Tooru hears the window open across from his, and the boy’s happy greeting to the purple-blue flowers he plants in the garden. Tooru sees the boy saying hi to the flowers and trees on his way to and back from the park. He sees him again in the garden in the afternoon, burying his face in a book and reading out loud to nobody but the strangely flourished green and white and purple-blue and all kind of colors.

It’s amazing and seemingly magical how _alive_ the other’s garden has become overnight. Tooru doesn’t remember there’s a cherry tree even. But with sleepy eyes and sluggish limbs, Tooru has spent his first morning after the boy's family moved in by watching the snow white cherry blossom from his room window.

\-----

The kids in the neighborhood doesn’t seem to appreciate Hajime’s difference.

It might be because they never witness the beautiful scene in Hajime's garden or because they don’t see how the plants thrive whenever the young boy visit them, every blossom seeming more colorful and plants starting swaying in the air as if wind is summoned to greet him, too.

The kids thinks Hajime weird, like they do Tooru when Tooru tells them about outer space and aliens. No one wants to approach Hajime and Tooru decides to be the first.

(Hajime said he’d like a friend. Tooru wants to make new friend, too.)

Tooru isn’t the first, however, as he finds Hajime being cornered into a tree by three bigger kids the next day in the park.

Tooru isn’t happy. _What are they doing with his new friend? Hajime doesn’t look like he likes them, either._

With sufficient weapon (his new volleyball) and determination, Tooru’s ready to step in. He’s already picturing how he can serve the ball right into the bigger kids’ faces when the time calls for it, regardless of the fact that he can yet perform a decent serve since he starts playing (roughly 17 days and counting.)

(It can also make him _and_ volleyball look cool when he declares Hajime his new best friend and _they_ are going to play volleyball.)

The plan fails in the next second when the _tree_ interferes, enveloping Hajime in a leafy hug before dumping a massive amount of leaves, branches and bugs on his bullies. The sudden event shocks everyone besides the boy hidden behind his woody defender. First screams from one of the bigger kids results in all three scrambling their way out, leaving Hajime struggles to get the tree to release him.

“I told you not to,” Hajime hisses in a teary voice, surprising Tooru from the shock. The boy looks on the verge to cry, both hands fisting tightly around the hem of his T-shirt as he remains in his spot. “I told you not to scare them. Now everybody knows.”

The tree bends and sways, reminding Tooru of his mother when she holds him in her laps and comforts him. Tooru guesses it’s apologizing.

“Hey,” Tooru calls, not thinking twice (never thinking twice.)

Hajime looks up, startled and defensive.

“What do you need?” he says, voice small and grumpy from his early frustration but yet still polite.

How weird.

“I, um,” Tooru hesitates, fumbling with his ball. “Just, don’t be mad at the tree. I mean, um, it was trying to help and it apologized, right?”

Hajime’s eyes widen, surprising hope reflecting the afternoon sun. “You talk to plants, too?”

“No,” Tooru says and almost regrets not lying as the light dims in the other boy’s eyes. “But I can tell it likes you.”

Hajime squints his eyes and Tooru swallows.

“You are not...” Hajime pauses, lips crooked and pouty as he thinks of the right word. “You are not… weird out?”

“Why?” Tooru asks. “It’s cool.”

Hajime stares a moment longer before he breaks into a big smile, all toothy except one missing, and Tooru can’t help but smile big, too.

“You are weird,” Hajime declares and it surprises Tooru how he doesn’t care about the boy’s choice of word. Maybe it’s the tone or the pure happiness on the other boy’s face. “I am Hajime. You?”

“I am Tooru,” Tooru says, reaching a hand like his father does when he greets new clients, volleyball tucked safely under another arm. “You wanna be friend?”

Flushed cheeks and wider grin, Hajime nods and takes Tooru’s hand. “Yes.”

“Great,” Tooru says, as seriously as a six year old could muster to start a speech. “Now, first thing to know about your new best friend: I like volleyball. And you'd like it, too.”

\-----

Volleyball becomes even more fun and exciting after Hajime joins him.

They play every day, in the park, in the street (once, and get scolded by Hajime’s mother, a small woman with a huge temper) and in Tooru's backyard. Hajime doesn't allow Tooru to play in the Iwaizumis’ garden though.

“You suck,” Hajime simply says and Tooru pouts. “Well, we both suck. I don’t want us to hit a flower or knock over a pot if we play there.”

“We won’t,” Tooru mumbles but they both know it's a lie.

Hajime opens the door to his home, takes off his shoes in the genkan and puts them orderly in place. He waits for Tooru to do the same before confiscating the volleyball Tooru brings and putting it in the shoe cabinet. “Anyway, Sara-san would want to play, too. Then we wouldn't get to touch the ball again.”

“Sara-san?”

“The Yoshino cherry in our backyard,” Hajime replies, heading to the kitchen. “He likes to play but he's too tall to play many game.”

“Why didn’t you tell me your tree play volleyball?” Tooru asks incredulously, following Hajime to the overhead cabinet in the kitchen.

Hajime moves a chair to stand on and starts fishing snacks and two tea bottles from the cabinet, dumping them into Tooru’s waiting arms.

“Because he doesn’t,” Hajime replies, fishing out one last package of bread and dropping it on the big pile in Tooru’s arms. Tooru shifts, tugging all the stolen food securely under his chin. “Sara-san and I play throw and catch sometimes. I tried to play soccer with him. But it didn’t seem fair since he couldn’t move.”

“What else do you play?” Tooru asks, eager to know more.

Hajime climbs down the chair and moves it back to the table. He’s smiling wide when he takes the tea bottles off the pile from Tooru, apparently happy that he could share his plant stories to someone. “Sara-san likes _Go_ and teaches me a little. Though I am nowhere near as good as grandpa.”

“Your grandfather talks to tree, too?” Tooru asks, tagging closely behind Hajime and nearly bumps into him when Hajime stops by the couch to grab a blanket.

“My grandfather from my mother’s side,” Hajime says, throwing the blanket over his head like a cloak and starts moving towards the back of the house. "People say it’s a consan...  something about blood or history thing with fairies so our-

“ _What!?_ ” Tooru exclaims, dumbfounded, a few packages dropping from his sudden loose hands. “Your family are _fairies_?”

“Hey, you drop the milk bread I want to share with you,” Hajime says, bending down to grab the packages. Hands occupied, Hajime straightens up and headbutts Tooru in the forehead, and Tooru yelps (more out of dramatics than actually being hurt.) “And you didn’t let me finish! People talk but we are no fairies. Mom told me it was a gift from the old old time when someone from the family helped a fairy. The fairy gave them magic over plants as a thank you. Or maybe they are not that thankful anyway.”

“Why wouldn’t it be? It's plant magic. It's cool and _pretty_! I see your garden everyday and the flowers,” Tooru says, eyes shiny.

"Mom has the prettiest garden," Hajime beams, nodding, looking proud and pleased. "Did you see _Ajis_ , too?"

" _Ajis_?" Tooru tilts his head, remembering the name from the first day and the following morning greeting from Hajime's window. "The purple-blue flowers?"

"Yes," Hajime says, excited. He stops in front of a pair of wooden sliding doors and turns to Tooru. "I want you to meet them."

Hajime opens the door and Tooru sees magic.

\-----

That night, Tooru brings home a pot of hydrangea, _Ajisai_ (紫陽花), with him, gifted by the flower’s proud dad, and can’t stop talking about the day he stays at Hajime’s garden while his mother preparing their late night dessert.

Tooru hugs the clay pot close to the chest (the very first gift from his best friend if he doesn’t count the juice box, the bubble gum, and the dango Hajime bought him with the little allowance he got from his mother when they went to the local festival market with Tooru's sister when she visited last week) while he talks.

He tries to tell his mother how it is to be in Hajime’s garden, how everything becomes so lively, welcoming their favorite boy, vines climbing and circling Hajime’s wrist, bushes striving to offer them berries and Sara-san laying the most beautiful blossom upon spiky hair. He tries to describe how even the color thrives in the garden and more so under Hajime’s fingers.

He fails (miserably, since he never realizes the importance of color vocabulary in conversation and can only cite about ten other than the ones teachers teach them with rainbow.) He also fails to describe the rich, fresh fragrance weaved by the scents of herbs, flowers, and berries that filled his nostril that afternoon (a smell he would forever associated it with Hajime in his memory.)

Yet, Tooru concludes that it is the best afternoon he has ever experienced, just as amazing as the milk bread Hajime shares with him.

(He didn’t get a chance to eat his pudding, either, hands too busy cradling his flower.)

\-----

The flower ( _Haji-chan_ Tooru decides to call it since it rhymes with _Ajis_ and it’s from Hajime) takes residency at Tooru’s window sill.

Tooru starts waking up to _Haji-chan_ leaning towards the window every morning, swaying energetically on sunny days and lazily on rainy days. Tooru would open the window for it and waves as Hajime greets his garden and his hydrangea baby now in Tooru’s care (Hajime doesn’t let Tooru take care of _Haji-chan_ on his own at first and insists on visiting Tooru’s bedroom every day for the first month.)

He gets another pot, a single magellan pink _zinnia_ with three buds waiting to bloom, on his seventh birthday, and another, a full-bloomed cream-yellow _dahlia_ in a perfect shape of ball (Hajime even ties a blue and white ribbons around the pot and says it’s volleyball colors), on his eighth, a _diphylleia grayi_ (Tooru never learns to say the name even though Hajime has specifically taped a name tag on the pot) that turns different shades of translucence when it rains on his ninth because apparently he’s in a crazy alien phase that anything’d look beautiful if they are weird (or in Tooru’s word– _out of this world._ )

His window sill is fully occupied before his twelfth birthday.

Hajime adapts to give him a new volleyball to replace the old, scattered one Tooru practices at home before they head to middle school.

Hajime also adapts to call him _Oikawa_ instead of _Tooru_ before the school starts. Tooru throws a tantrum when Hajime suggests it first and, in revenge, starts calling Hajime _Iwa-chan_.

Hajime doesn't seem to mind and Tooru quickly starts appreciating the new nickname he has for his best friend because no one calls him _Iwa-chan_ expect Tooru.

They are good, perfect even, as they are attending the same school, same class, and foremost the same team in their school volleyball team.

 

There is one change he doesn’t see coming along with the new semester... Tooru can't find in himself to appreciate it.

  


**Author's Note:**

> This is my iwaoi exchange gift for @theprettysettersclub on tumblr. They like magic and dragon, and I was going in that direction originally. I even have the story planned out in my head of pro Quidditch player!Oikawa and dragonologist!Iwaizumi. But, well, plan changes (as usual) and things get out of hand. Now the fic turns 180 degrees different and becomes a story of flowers and stupid pining boys. I hope you'd still like your gift.
> 
> The second part would hopefully be posted in May. Happy shipping! 
> 
> Feel free to drop by and talk to me about my boys!  
> tumblr: aunnoo.tumblr.com


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